By Stacy Rausch
Family Christmas traditions and a list of churches in the Arlington Diocese celebrating Midnight Mass and 11 p.m. vigil Masses.
12/15/16
Reading Time
3
min
By Fr. Kenneth Doyle
Q. At our parish weekend Mass, one child comes regularly to the altar at the same time as the eucharistic ministers and receives Communion separately from the congregation. My understanding is that he has celiac disease and gets a gluten-free host. But I just realized today that the celebrant gives him Communion using the same […]
12/14/16
Reading Time
3
min
By Russell Shaw
For many people, the season of good cheer is a deeply trying affair. I don’t mean souls who have good reason to be sad — the loss of loved ones, poor health, loneliness — but those who feel let down when Christmas doesn’t deliver all the personal gratification they were looking for. The funk they […]
12/14/16
Reading Time
3
min
By Mary Beth Bonacci
A gentleman named Harmon Hallett, the father of a friend, died recently. In a Facebook post, she wrote, “He was very adamant about not being eulogized. He was terrified nobody would pray for his release from purgatory. He was sure he was headed there first and said on more than one occasion ‘I don’t want […]
12/14/16
Reading Time
4
min
By Thomas J. Craughwell
St. Lucy, along with St. Agnes, St. Agatha and St. Cecilia, is one of the four great virgin martyrs of the early church. Devotion to her has remained strong for more than 1,700 years, not only in her native Sicily but throughout the Christian world: even the overwhelmingly Protestant countries of Scandinavia celebrate the feast day of “Santa Lucia.”
12/9/16
Reading Time
3
min
By Russell Shaw
Many social conservatives, though by no means all, were ecstatic at the election of Donald Trump. Whether they’ll still be ecstatic a few months down the line cannot be predicted — and by no means is this uncertainty entirely of Trump’s making. Start with the Supreme Court. During the campaign, Trump, who in the past […]
12/8/16
Reading Time
3
min
By Michael Flach
Advent is a four-week period of preparation that inaugurates the church’s liturgical year. The General Norms for the Liturgical Year and Calendar offer this description: “Advent has a twofold character: as a season to prepare us for Christmas when Christ’s first coming to us is remembered; as a season when that remembrance directs the mind […]
12/6/16
Reading Time
3
min
By Elizabeth Foss
I was pregnant with my seventh child the year my eldest was confirmed. Bishop Paul S. Loverde was the celebrant. This year, that seventh child will be confirmed. With my own children and with other children I love, I have been to more confirmation Masses than I can count since that one in 2002. At […]
12/6/16
Reading Time
3
min
By Zoey Maraist
The people of Raleigh show an enduring love for their bishop.
12/2/16
Reading Time
1
min
Responding to God’s Will